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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH MAY, 1889.
DRAFT BILL
ENTITLED
An Ordinance to extend the provisions of the Passengers' Act, 1855 and the Passengers' Act, Amendment Act, 1863 for taking off passengers at sea and for forwarding to their destination passengers who have been brought to the Colony without their own neglect or default, and for defraying the cost thereof to voyages of a shorter distance and duration than men- tioned in the said Acts.
E it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, by aud
Bwith
thereof, as follows:-
1. This Ordinance may be cited for all purposes as The Passengers Relief Ordinance, 1889.
2. In this Ordinance unless the context be inconsistent therewith or repugnant thereto the words and expressions hereinafter mentioned shall have and include the following meanings (that is to say):-
Statute adult shall signify any person of the age of twelve years and upwards or two persons between the ages of one and twelve years.
Passenger ship shall signify every description of sea going vessel whether British Foreign or Colonial carrying upon any voyage to which this Ordinance applies, more than fifty passengers or a greater number of passengers than in the proportion of one statute adult to every thirty- three tons of the registered tonnage of such ship, if pro- pelled by sails or than one statute adult to every 20 tous if propelled by steam.
Passengers shall include all persons carried in any pas- senger ship exclusive of the master, officers, crew and employés thereof.
3. This Ordinance shall apply to voyages of any duration and distance from any of Her Majesty's Possessions to any other place.
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4. If the passengers of any passenger ship shall be taken off from any passenger ship" or shall be picked up at sea from any boat raft or otherwise and if they shall be conveyed to the Colony, it shall be lawful for the Go- wvernor or for any other person authorised by him for the purpose to defray all or any part of the expenses thereby incurred.
5. If any passenger of any passenger ship shall without any neglect or default of his own find himself within the Colony such place not being that for which the ship was originally bound nor at which he or the Emigration Com- missioners or any public officer or other person on his behalf may have contracted he should land, it shall be lawful for the Governor or for any person authorised by him for the purpose to forward such passenger to his intended destina- tion unless the master of such ship shall within 48 hours of the arrival of such passenger give to the Governor a written undertaking to forward or carry on within six weeks there- after such passenger to his original destination and unless such master shall accordingly forward or carry him on within that period.
6. All expenses incurred under the two last sections or either of them by or by the authority of the Governor or other person as appointed, including the cost of maintain- ing the passengers until forwarded to their destination, and of all necessary bedding, provisions, and stores, shall become a debt to Her Majesty and her successors from the owner, charterer, and master of such ship jointly and severally, and shall be recoverable from them, or from any one or more of them, at the suit and for the use of Her Majesty, in liko manner as in the case of other Crown debts; and a certi- ficate in the form in schedule (4) hereto annexed, or as near thereto as the circumstances of the case will admit, purporting to be under the hand of the Governor stating the total amount of such expenses, shall in any suit or other proceeding for the recovery of such debt be received in evidence without proof of the handwriting or of the official character of the Governor, and shall be deemed sufficient evidence of the amount of such expenses, and that the same were duly incurred, nor shall it be necessary to adduce on
Title.
Short title.
Interpreta- tion.
(18 & 19 Vic.
c. 119 a. 2.)
(96 & 27 V. c. 51, s. 3.)
Voyages to which Ordi- nance applies.
Governor may pay expenses of taking off passengers at
Bea.
(18 & 19 V. c 119, s. 52.)
Governor may forward passengers if master of ship fall to do so. (26 & 27 V. o., 8. 15.)
Expenses to be a Crown debt. (Ibid. a. 16.)
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